Resolution Adopted by the Second Paris Group of the R.S.D.L.P. on the State of Affairs in the Party[4]

Written:Written not later than June 18 (July 1), 1911Published:Published in July 1911, as a separate leaflet.

      Published according to the leaflet text and verified with the text of theInformation Bulletin.Source:Lenin
	  Collected Works,

      Progress Publishers,[1974],

      Moscow,Volume 17,

      pages216-224.Translated:Dora CoxTranscription\Markup:R. CymbalaPublic Domain:Lenin Internet Archive

      (2004).You may freely copy, distribute,
	display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and
	commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet
	Archive” as your source.•README

INTRODUCTION

Theresolution of the Second Paris Group of the
R.S.D.L.P. printed below (this group consists mainly of Bolsheviks with a
small number ofVperyodsupporters and “conciliators”) outlines
the fundamental propositions of the platform of all the Bolsheviks. At a
time when the inner-Party struggle is becoming more acute, it is
particularly important to make afundamentalstatement on the
cardinal problems of programme, tactics and organisation. People like
Trotsky, with his inflated phrases about the R.S.D.L.P. and his toadying
to the liquidators, who have nothing in common with the R.S.D.L.P., today
represent “the prevalent disease”. They are trying to build up a career
for them selves by cheap sermons about “agreement”—agreement with all
and sundry, right down to Mr. Potresov and the otzovists—while of
necessity maintaining complete silence as to the political conditions of
this wonderful supposed “agreement”. Actually they preachsurrenderto the liquidators who are building a Stolypin labour
party.

TheBolsheviks must now close their ranks more firmly, strengthen their
group, define more clearly and precisely its Party line (as distinct from
the line of the groups which, in one way or another, conceal their
“identity”), rally the scattered forces, and go into battle for an
R.S.D.L. Party purged of those who spread bourgeois influence among the
proletariat.

Themeeting of the Second Paris Group of the
R.S.D.L.P. after discussing the state of affairs in the R.S.D.L.P. in
general, and the latest manifestations of the struggle that has flared up
abroad between the Social-Democrats and those who want to be counted as
Social-Democrats, considers it necessary, first of all, to draw attention
to the fundamental statement of principles unanimously endorsed by the last
(January 1910) Plenary Meeting of the Central Committee, which defines the
nature of real Social-Democratic activity. That statement of principles
declares that “renunciation of the illegal Social-Democratic Party, the
belittling of its role and importance, attempts to cur tail the
programmatic and tactical tasks and slogans of revolutionary
Social-Democracy” are amanifestation of bourgeois influence over the
proletariat. The only true Social-Democratic activity is that which
recognises the danger of this deviation and of any ideological and
political trend that is otzovist or justifies otzovism, and whichreallyovercomes such deviations.

Thismeeting further places on record that, despite the above-mentioned
unanimous resolution of the Plenary Meeting, and despite the solemn promise
made by theGolosrepresentatives at the last Plenary Meetingto renounceliquidationism and to combat it, the editorial board
abroad ofGolos Sotsial-Demokrataand its group of adherents have
for more than eighteen months since that Meeting, pursued that verybourgeoispolicy of liquidationism and supported, justified, and
defended journals of the Russian legalists that are independent of
Social-Democracy and of socialism, such asNasha Zarya,Vozrozhdeniye,Dyelo Zhizni, etc. Those responsible for
these journals, as has been stated repeatedly on behalf of the Party by its
Central Organ, and as has also been stated by the pro-Party Mensheviks
headed by Comrade Plekhanov,have nothing in common with the
R.S.D.L.P. Those responsible for these journals not only belittle the
role and importance of the illegal Social-Democratic Party, but frankly
renounce it, slander the “underground” as renegades would, deny the
revolutionary nature of the activity and the revolutionary tasks of the
working-class movementin Russia today, deceive the workers by spreading liberal-bourgeois ideas
about the “constitutional” nature of the maturing crisis, throw overboard
(and not only curtail) such time-honoured slogans of revolutionary Marxism
as the recognition of thehegemonyof the working class in the
struggle for socialism and for the democratic revolution. By preaching and
building what they call a legal or “open” workers’ party these people
have actually become the builders of aStolypin “labour” partyand spread bourgeois influence among the proletariat; in reality, the ideas
preached by these people are bourgeois in content, and an “open” workers’
party under Stolypin amounts to open renegacy on the part of people who
have renounced the tasks of the revolutionary struggle of the masses
against the tsarist autocracy, the Third Duma, and the entire Stolypin
regime.

Themeeting places on record that the Central Committee Bureau Abroad,
which is supposed to be a technical organ of the C.C., has come completely
under the influence of the

			     liquidators.[1]

Byits failure to fulfil, in the course of eighteen months, any one of
the commissions given to it by the Central Committee (for instance—to
unite the groups abroad on the basis of the acceptance and implementation
of the Plenary Meeting’s decisions, to help the organisations in the
localities, or to see to it thatGolosis discontinued and an end
put to the factional aloofness of theVperyodgroup), the Bureau
Abroad has been of direct assistance to the enemies of the
Social-Democratic Party, the liquidators.

Themajority of the Central Committee Bureau Abroad showed contempt for
the Party by systematicallyobstructing, ever since December 1910,
the calling of a plenary meeting (as demanded by the Rules). The first time
the Bolsheviks filed their application that the meeting be convened, the
Central Committee Bureau Abroad wasted seven weeks just “taking a vote”
on this question. After those seven weeks the Central Committee Bureau
Abroad acknowledgedthat the Bolsheviks’ demand for a plenary meeting was “legitimate”, but
at the same time it in practiceobstructedthe calling of a
plenary meeting and did the same again at the end of May 1911. Actually,
the role ofthisCentral Committee Bureau Abroad has been to
render assistance from abroad and from within the central Party bodies to
leaders of the legalists and active promoters of a Stolypin labour party,
such as Mikhail, Yuri, and Roman, who have declared the very existence of
the Central Committee to be harmful (see Nos. 12 and 21-22 ofSotsial-Demokrat, Central Organ of the

				Party[2]).

The meeting declares that the holding of Party posts by liquidators is
outrightdeceptionof the Party, for the decisions of the Plenary
Meeting clearly and unambiguously state that onlythoseMensheviks
should be permitted to hold such posts whoconscientiouslyabide
by their promise to renounce liquidationism and to combat

				 it.[3]

Themeeting is, therefore, of the opinion that it was absolutely
incumbent upon the Bolsheviks to break completely with the Central
Committee Bureau Abroad as a body which has placed itself outside Party law
and outside the Party, and that the Meeting of members of the Central
Committee (see its “Notification”), which represented the vast majority
of Social-Democratic Party organisations, groups, and circles actually
working in Russia, was absolutely right in declaring that “the Central
Committee Bureau Abroad has been pursuing a factional anti-Party policy,
thereby violating the clear and precise decisions of the 1910 Plenary
Meeting”.

Themeeting resolves to discontinue all relations with the Central
Committee Bureau Abroad, and to support the decisions of the Meeting of
members of the Central Commit tee, which has outlined a number of
absolutely necessary measures to be taken in order to paralyse the activity
of the liquidators, hampering as it does the entire work of the Party;to call a Party conference, and to help Party functionaries in all
localities to revive the illegal organisations and nuclei of the Party. The
meeting calls upon all Party comrades in all localities to set to work atonce(in line with the decisions of the May-June Meeting) to
prepare for a Party conference and hold elections to it, and, for this
purpose, to establish regular connections with the Organising

Commission,[5]the Central Organ andRabochaya Gazeta.

Themeeting draws the attention of worker Social-Democrats,
irrespective of factions, to the fact that the émigré leaders
of theVperyodgroup, and Trotsky, editor ofPravda, are
pursuing a policy of supporting the liquidators and of an alliance with
them against the Party and against its decisions. This policy must be
combated all the more vigorously since it is profoundly detrimental to the
interests of the proletariat and, as such, is completely at variance with
the activity of theRussianillegal Social-Democratic groups
which, though connected withPravdaorVperyod, are
absolutely loyal in carrying out the decisions of the Party, and are
everywhere struggling persistently against the liquidators to uphold the
illegal R.S.D.L.P. and its revolutionary programme.

Themeeting particularly warns worker Social-Democrats against thedeceptionsystematically practised by theGoloswriters,
who describe all the comrades active in the legal movement as opponents of
the old Party and adherents of Potresov’s new “open” party. Thus, in the
latest bulletin, published byGoloson June 25 (reporting a
“conference” of people active in the legal movement), theGoloseditorssuppressedthe fact that the conference hadvoted
downa motion of the liquidators to boycott a certain legally
published newspaper for its anti-liquidationist

policy.[6]Thus, the editors ofGolosalsosuppressedthe fact that that same conferencehad voted downthe openly
legalist and obviously renegade resolutions which had been proposed byGolossupporters. Even a Bundist who participated in the
conference had there admitted that the proposals of the “Potresovites”
were of an anti-Party nature, A number of thoseactive in the open movement havealreadyembarked upon a resolute
struggle against the Stolypin “labour” party. And if all Party members
work solidly together, the number of such people will undoubtedly increase.

Wheneverthe struggle between Social-Democrats and those
who spread bourgeois influence among the proletariat is intensified, all
the unprincipled elements invariably bend their efforts to obscure great
questions of principle by cheap sensationalism and scandal-mongering, such
as those to which theGolospeople abroad are assiduously treating
audiences avid for contaminated spiritual food at meetings organised by the
liquidators.

Ata time like this it is more than ever incumbent upon revolutionary
Marxists to remind all and sundry of theoldtruthsforgottenby the liquidators, truths which constitute the
foundation of our Social-Democratic activity.

Themeeting, therefore, reminds all the members of the R.S.D.L.P. of
our Partyprogramme, of the programme which at a time when
international opportunism is intensifying and when a decisive struggle is
maturing between opportunism and revolutionary Social-Democracy, has given
a precise, clear, definite, and unyielding formulation of the revolutionaryultimate goalof socialism which can be achieved only by means of
the dictatorship of the proletariat, and of the immediate revolutionary
aims of the Russian Social-Democratic movement, the overthrow of tsarism
and the establishment of a democratic republic. Theentirepropaganda conducted by our legalists and byGolosshows that,in actual fact, far from adhering to and carrying out our
programme, they are frankly defendingreformism[as the pro-Party
Mensheviks have also admitted (see Plekhanov’sThe Diary of a

Social-Democrat[7]and theDiscussion Bulletin, No. 3)]
and are plainly renouncing the immediate revolutionary aims of the
R.S.D.L.P.

Themeeting reminds all members of the R.S.D.L.P. that to be arealParty member, it is not enough tocalloneself such,
nor is it enough to carry on propaganda “in the spirit” of the
programme of the R.S.D.L.P.; one must also carryout theentirepractical work in conformity with thetacticaldecisions of the Party. In the present period of counter
revolution, at a time of universal renegacy, resignation, and despondency,
particularly among the bourgeois intellectuals, only the Party decisions on
tactics provide an appraisal of the situation, an appraisal of the
practical line of conduct from the viewpoint of the principles of
revolutionary Marxism. The real R.S.D.L.P., and not tile one whichGoloswriters use as a screen for liquidationism, hasnoParty definition of the tasks of Social-Democracy at the present moment
exceptthe resolutions on tactics adopted in December 1908.

Theliquidators, and to a certain extent theVperyodgroup,
hush up these resolutions or confine themselves to cursory references and
outcriesagainstthem precisely for the reason that they feel that
these resolutions call for alineof activity which radically
repudiates both opportunist and semi-anarchist vacillations; which holds
aloft the banner of revolution in spite of all and sundry
counter-revolutionary trends; and whichexplainsthe economic and
political characteristics of the present period as a new phase in Russia’s
bourgeois development, a phase which leads to a revolution destined to
achieve the old objectives. A Party member is one who pursues the tactical
line of the Partyin practice. And there is only one tactical line
of the R.S.D.L.P., the one stated in the resolutions of December 1908,
which combine loyalty to the banner of the revolution with due regard for
the new conditions of the present period. The resolutions ofthe
Plenary Meeting held in January 1910, which are directed againstthose who spread bourgeois influence among the proletariat,
represent a logical and direct corollary to, and are the natural
continuation and fulfilment of, the resolutions of December 1908, which
condemn liquidationism and categorically demand that Social-Democratic work
in the Duma should be recognised and advantage taken of the possibilities
offered for legal activity. In our days of confusion and disorganisation,
we often come across people who invoke the great principle of the unity of
tile proletarian army in order to justify their unprincipled or cheap
diplomatic attempts to effect “unity” or to “draw closer to” those whospread bourgeois influence among the proletariat.The meeting most categorically condemns and repudiates all such attempts,
regardless of who is responsible for them, and declares that the great work
of uniting and consolidating the fighting army of the revolutionary
proletariat cannot be carried out unless a line of demarcation is drawn and
a ruthless struggle is waged against those who serve to spread bourgeois
influence among the proletariat.

AParty member is one who actually helpsbuild upthe
organisation in conformity with the principles of Social-Democracy. The
Party, the R.S.D.L.P., has no otherPartydefinition of the nature
and tasks of organisational work but the one given in the resolution on the
organisational question adopted in December 1908, in the resolution on the
same question adopted by the Plenary Meeting of January 1910, and in the
letter of the Central Committee published immediately after that
Meeting.Onlyall-round help in re establishing and reinforcing
theillegalorganisation can be regarded asPartywork;
and only the illegal R.S.D.L.P. can and should surrounditselfwith a network of legally existing organisations,make useof all
kinds of legally existing organisations, anddirectthe entire
work of such organisations in the spirit of our revolutionary
principles. Anyone who does not actually carry on such work, who takes part
in the counter-revolutionary crusade in general, and in the liberal crusade
in particular, against the “underground”, against illegal activity,deceivesthe workers when he speaks of his membership of the
R.S.D.L.P.

Theelections to the Fourth Duma are drawing near. The more acute the
crisis becomes in the top leadership of the Party abroad, the more urgent
the need for Social-Democratic functionaries in the localities to show
initiative; the more strictly must they insist, andensure, that
election activity isreallycarried on in a Party spirit by every
group, every nucleus, every workers’ circle. Anyone who to this day regards
“otzovism” as a “legitimate trend in our Party” takes the name of the
R.S.D.L.P. in vain. Youcannotconduct Party work in the elections
to the Fourth Duma unless you most resolutely refuse to have anything to do
with such people. He who to this day talks of conducting the Fourth Duma
election campaign with the forces and resources of “legally functioning
organisations”, with theforces and resources of an “open workers’ party”, and who at the same
time refuses to abide by and carry out the decisions of the R.S.D.L.P. on
the illegal organisation and the tactics as set forth in the Party’s
resolutions, takes the name of the R.S.D.L.P. in vain. He who carries on
election activity and does not abide by the decisions of the R.S.D.L.P.,
but follows the line proposed in articles appearing inNasha
Zarya,Golos Sotsial-DemokrataandDyelo Zhizni, is
a builder of a Stolypin “labour” party, and not of the revolutionary
Social-Democratic party of the proletariat.

Thefirst aim of our Party at the forthcoming Fourth Duma elections is
to educate the masses in socialism and develop mass agitation in favour of
a democratic revolution to be accomplished by the forces of the proletariat
and revolutionary bourgeois democrats (in the first place the revolutionary
peasantry).

Inthe interests of such propaganda and agitation our Party must
organise theindependentparticipation of Social-Democrats in the
elections and Party candidates must be put forward, not only in the worker
curia, but everywhere, in all urban and rural constituencies.

TheParty’s entire agitational work during the elections must be
conducted on two fronts, i.e., against the government and the parties
openly supporting it, aswellas against the Cadet Party, the
party of counter-revolutionary liberalism.

Onlythose people may be Party candidates who really carry out the
policy of the R.S.D.L.P. in full, are loyal not only to its programme but
also to its resolutions on tactics, and who fight the new Stolypin
“labour” party.

Asto election agreements, the fundamental principles of the London
Party Congress and the Party Conference of

July 1907[8]must remain in force.

TheFourth Duma election campaign must be conducted by Party groups of
workers, in the spirit of the Party decisions and in strict conformity with
them.

[1]IgorevofGolos(sufficiently exposed and branded by the
pro-Party Menshevik Plekhanov) and the Bundist

Lieber,[9]who is conducting open propaganda in defence of
Mr. Potresov and other figures of a Stolypin labour party, are the leading
lights of this Central Committee Bureau Abroad.  —Lenin

[2]Seepresent edition, Vol. 16, “Golos(Voice) of the
Liquidators Against the Party”, and pp. 129–33 of this
volume.—Ed.

[3]Asregards the methods resorted to by the liquidators abroad in their
fight against the R.S.D.L.P., such as political blackmail and the supplying
of information to the secret police—which is what Mr. Martov did with the
aid of theGoloseditors—the meeting expresses its scorn for
literary efforts of that nature, which can only arouse the disgust of all
decent people.  —Lenin

[4]Themeeting of the Second Paris Group of the R.S.D.L.P.took
place on June 18 (July 1), 1911.

[9]Lieber,Ber(M. I. Goldman)—a liquidator, one of the leaders
of the Bund.

[5]OrganisingCommission(Organising Commission Abroad, O.C.A.)
was set up at the Meeting of members of the Central Committee,
R.S.D.L.P. in June 1911 in order to prepare for a conference of the
R.S.D.L.P. The O.C.A. consisted of Bolsheviks, conciliators and
representatives of the Polish Social-Democrats. Other factions (pro-Party
Mensheviks,Vperyodgroup, etc.) did not appoint any
representatives to the O.C.A.

TheO.C.A. issued a “Notification” about the June Meeting of the
members of the Central Committee, and a leaflet “To All Social-Democratic
Party Organisations, Groups and Circles” on the calling of a conference
and also sent three representatives with full powers to Russia, including
G. K. Orjonikidze, who were to carry out the preparatory work for the
calling of the conference, and to set up the Russian Organising Commission.

Fromits inception, the conciliators, supported by the representatives
of the Polish Social-Democrats, were in the majority in the O.C.A. In
November 1911 it refused to submit to the decisions of the Russian
Organising Commission, after which the Bolshevik members of the
O.C.A. declined responsibility for its actions and withdrew from
it. Subsequently, the conciliator majority of the O.C.A. openly campaigned
against the Russian Organising Commission.

Inhis “Letter to the Editorial Board”, published in December 1911 in
No. 25 ofSotsial-Demokrat, G. K. Orjonikidze exposed the
anti-Party activities of the O.G.A.

[6]Thereference is to the legal Bolshevik newspaperZvezda

[7]TheDiary of a Social-Democratwas published by
G. V. Plekhanov, and issued irregularly in Geneva at long intervals from
March 1905 to April 1912; 16 numbers appeared. Publication ofThe
Diarywas recommenced in 1916 in Petrograd but only one number
appeared.

[8]TheFifth(London)Congress of the R.S.D.L.P.(April
30–May 19 [May 13–June 1], 1907) in its resolution on “Attitude to
Non-proletarian Parties” recognised that any united activity with the
Narodnik parties must exclude any deviation from the programme and tactics
of Social-Democracy, and should serve only the aims of a general attack
both against reaction and the treacherous tactics of the liberal
bourgeoisie.

TheThird(Second All-Russia)Conference of the
R.S.D.L.P.(July 21–23 [August 3–5], 1907) in a resolution on the
question of participation in elections to the State Duma resolved that in
theelection campaign and in the Duma itself, Social-Democrats must spread and
inculcate in the mass of the people the ideas of socialism and
revolutionary slogans, anti carry out a determined struggle both against
reaction and the leadership of the Cadets in the liberation movement in
general, and in the Duma in particular.